The preparedness to withstand these values (freedom, peace, tracts for the spirit) expectedly leads to a crescendo, reinforcing the overall impact of the poem, its content, sound and vividness: the destructive energy of the stones flying and rolling on the slope proves helpless before the fragile, yet impenetrable glass-house of the music which survives the pressure. This finale is surprising not so much with its metaphorical density that is generally typical of Tranströmer’s poetry as with its character of a political creed, as it is interpreted by some critics in Sweden, recalling that the poet was reproached and even overtly accused of civic passivity and lack of ideological commitment, particularly during that stage of his life and work (the 1960’s and the 1970’s). I would only mention, in passing, that the careful reading of many of his poems, such as the earlier Balakirev’s Dream (Balakirevs dröm) from his second book Secrets on the Way gives ample proof of the opposite with, inter alia, the author’s choice to make his statement in his own peculiar way, mustering up intense feelings with his typical idiomatic imagery and an atmosphere of a weird dream. The musical accompaniment to the dramatic experience of the Russian composer and pianist Milij Balakirev (1837-1910) who had to solve for himself the problem of political commitments and responsibilities of the artist in a critically difficult situation, is a drum beat, while the particular stress laid on the black colour in the picture seems to evoke associations with the choice of imagery in some early films of Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet, 1957) for example. Here follows an excerpt: